


A Thrill of Hope

by notmyyacht



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Christmas Decorations, Christmas Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, Post-Infinity War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-15 22:00:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13040298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notmyyacht/pseuds/notmyyacht
Summary: The war with Thanos had been long; they had lost lives, and yet they still came out victorious. Somehow. It was not surprising that everybody was just exhausted now, exhausted from the fight, exhausted at the possibilities that something worse could always come to Earth and next time they wouldn’t be so lucky. Christmas seemed so trivial now.





	A Thrill of Hope

**Author's Note:**

> For day three of the 12 Days of Holiday Shipping Challenge! Prompt: Decorating
> 
> Completely unbeta'd! Any and all mistakes are on me.

Steve stared up at the twelve-foot pine tree that stood near the window, in the corner of the living room of Avengers Headquarters.

The living room was a large open space with a bar on the left-hand side. At the center of the room were various couches and cushioned chairs which vaguely shaped a horseshoe. At the open end of the horseshoe was a wall that faced opposite the bar, where the large flatscreen hung on the wall. At the very back of the room sat a long couch in front of a fireplace, which was freshly lit and already warming the room.

The tree had been placed in the room nearly three days beforehand and still no one hand decorated it, or the room in general. It had originally been Tony’s idea, too. But the war for Earth was still fresh in everyone’s memories and it seemed nobody had enough holiday cheer in them to put in the effort. At least, nobody except for Steve.

Soft instrumental Christmas music played in the background as Steve opened each box of decorations and viewed their contents. He eyed the place. This was going to take a while. Should he decorate anywhere else? He scratched at his beard and looked up at the tree again. He was going to need a stepladder, that was for sure.

“What are you doing?”

Steve jumped to his feet and whirled around, facing the door.

There stood Loki, dressed in what Steve could only assume was considered “casual” to Loki: what was likely leather trousers, his boots, a long-sleeved green tunic, and an open black sleeveless leather coat that went down to his knees. His long black hair looked damp, and not quite as put together as it usually did. It was if he’d just stepped out of the shower and threw on the most elegant casual wear he could –which he likely had.

It was probably the first time Steve ever saw him in anything other than Asgardian armor. In jeans, socks, and a blue t-shirt, Steve felt foolishly underdressed just looking at him.

“Just decorating for Christmas,” he replied.

Loki eyed the box of ornaments in Steve’s hand, then glanced up at the tree.

“You do know what Christmas is, right?”

“I know enough,” Loki said. “I never quite understood it, nor do I understand how you can still celebrate it after everything that’s happened.”

The war with Thanos had been long; they had lost lives, and yet they still came out victorious. Somehow. It was not surprising that everybody was just exhausted now, exhausted from the fight, exhausted at the possibilities that something worse could always come to Earth and next time they wouldn’t be so lucky. Christmas seemed so trivial now.

“Christmas was always there,” said Steve. “Through many wars, it’s remained. Even in the 40s, as a seemingly endless war raged, people still celebrated it. It’s comfort, I guess.”

Loki came up to the tree and frowned.

“Nobody else seems to share your views, Captain.”

“Maybe they’ll change their minds when they see the tree decorated,” said Steve, a hint of hope in his voice. That hint caused Loki to finally turn to him, eyes narrowed, studying him.

“Why?”

“Because maybe they’ll see and they’ll be reminded of the future we just fought for and won. We need this.”

‘We’ he had said and it hadn’t gone unnoticed. Loki cleared his throat and stared up at the tree again, trying to look anywhere but at Steve.

Thor had said Loki had changed. That he was on their side now. Naturally, everybody had doubted him, especially Steve. The last alien threat the Avengers had faced had been led by their new ‘ally’. Steve believed people could change, but not Loki. He couldn’t shake the memory of him standing above the crowd at Stuttgart, how he was moments away from killing an innocent civilian before Steve stepped in. How could that homicidal monster change?

And then Loki had saved his life. Not just his, but nearly three dozen civilians. Steve had been in the process of trying to evacuate a bus that he was on when it was thrown onto its side. Three alien creatures had the vehicle surrounded and Steve was certain that people were going to die before he could get out and protect them. And then he saw him and watched Loki jump right in front of the aliens’ attack and take them down in less than thirty seconds.

It was burned into his mind, the look on Loki’s face as he turned to face the bus. It wasn’t of bloodthirsty mania, but of relief that he had gotten there just in time. Perhaps pride too. Loki then smashed the front window of the bus and started telling everyone to get out. Steve, who had gotten trapped under a seat, had felt himself pulled out from the wreckage.

Loki had saved lives. He never turned on the Avengers. Thor had been right. He had changed. He was still incredibly dangerous, and most of them still didn’t completely trust him, but he’d earned a room at the Avengers HQ for now. Villain or not, enemy or friend, Loki was here. He was a part of this.

“You want to help?” Steve asked. Loki stiffened and slowly turned to him, his expression unreadable.

Steve smiled slightly as he placed the ornament box down and picked up the string of lights.

“Come on, I need a second pair of hands anyway,” he said.

Loki watched as he unraveled the lights. He opened his mouth to protest, but closed it immediately when Steve offered up one of the ends. He blinked and took it.

“Where do I put it?”

“That end is the plug, so over there.” Steve pointed to the nearest outlet. Loki plugged the end into the outlet, causing the string to light up in various colors. Steve smiled and looked up at the still naked tree.

“Here,” he said, abruptly dumping the lights into Loki’s arms.

“Hey-”

Steve snatched the ladder and lined it up in front of the tree. When he turned back, the lights were tangled around Loki’s arms and shoulders as he struggled to free himself. How the hell had he managed to get some of them _around_ him? Steve bit back a chuckle.

“Hey if you want to be the tree this year, that’s fine by me,” said Steve.

Loki glared at him.

“Not funny, Rogers. Now help me out of this.”

Steve walked up to him and pulled the string of lights up over Loki’s head. Loki sighed heavily, as if this was the worst thing to happen to him all day. What a drama queen. Steve managed to untangle the lights from Loki’s arms and took a step back.

“Why don’t I hold this at the bottom and you go around the other side?” said Steve. Loki gave a curt nod and walked around to the opposite side of the tree. Steve placed the lights on the branches as far as he could reach behind the tree. “Incoming!” he warned, tossing the clump of lights to the other side.

The lights didn’t slacken, meaning they were caught. There was a pause and then Loki said, “Now what?”

Right. Christmas was a foreign holiday to Loki. He never decorated a tree before. Steve made his way around to Loki’s side, where the god in question stood awkwardly holding the lights at arm’s length. Steve shook his head slightly and took the lights.

“Here, I’ll show you,” he said, kneeling down to put the lights on close to the bottom of the tree. He brought the lights up slightly so they’d wrap around the tree. Loki watched intently, a small crease forming between his eyebrows.

When they came back to where Steve had been standing before, he paused.

“Get it?” he asked.

“Yes, I believe I’ve got the general idea of it,” Loki said with a nod before returning to the other side of the tree.

Steve adjusted the lights appropriately then once again shouted, “Incoming!” he threw the lights. Moments later Loki came into view, carefully wrapping the lights through the branches. Steve met him halfway and continued.

“Those lights aren’t long enough,” said Loki.

“There are more in the box over there,” Steve replied. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Loki picked up another bunch of Christmas lights from the large box and began untangling them.

Once the lights were up, the two broke into the ornaments. There were a variety of them that arranged from simple colorful orbs to ones that Steve recognized from past Christmases, some were from kids who were fans, others from Tony’s personal collection.

Steve and Loki decorated mostly in silence. Once in a while, Steve found himself getting into it and started humming along with the background music. Loki didn’t seem bothered by it in the slightest.

With the tree completely full of lights and ornaments and even a bit of tinsel, all that was left was the topper. Steve reached into the box and pulled out a beautiful angel with a porcelain face and blond hair.

 _Must be an heirloom_ , Steve thought. He glanced over at Loki, who was regarding the bright tree with a smile. Steve found himself smiling too. Look at what they accomplished together. A few years ago, he never would have guessed that this was how he’d be spending his holiday season.

“You want to put the angel on top?” he asked. Loki turned to him and furrowed his brow again. His gaze flickered between Steve’s face and the angel in his hands.

“I beg your pardon?”

“It’s a tradition to put either a star or angel at the top of the tree. We have an angel. I figure you putting it on might be safer than me on the rickety ladder,” said Steve. Loki had been putting the higher ornaments on by using his magic to levitate them. Even from ground level, he kept finding the best places for each and every one. The ladder Steve had used was not that bad, but that wasn’t the point.

“Oh, right,” said Loki, as Steve handed him the topper. He looked down at the angel for a moment, the crease between his eyes returning.  

“What’s wrong?” asked Steve.

“Nothing. It just… it looks like someone I once knew,” said Loki. Tears welled in his eyes before he turned back to the tree.

Steve knew that look, that look of loss. He recalled of when Thor had told of his mother’s death and how that had brought him and Loki to work together against Malekith. He could only guess at who the angel looked like.

“It’s going to be a tight fit,” said Loki, referring to the gap between the ceiling and the top of the tree.

“You can make it work, can’t you?” said Steve.

“Of course,” Loki stated. Green magic danced from his fingers and around the tree topper as he lifted the angel into the air. He was careful and made sure not to bump it against the ceiling or walls. It slipped on nicely to the tallest branch, fitting perfectly into the gap.

“Never doubted you,” Steve said with a smile. He turned to Loki, who had that unreadable look on his face again. “You okay?”

Something rippled through Loki’s expression then and he finally looked at Steve.

“Thank you for this, Captain,” he said.

“You’re welcome,” said Steve. “And you can call me Steve.”

“As you wish.”

A moment passed between them. Then Loki leaned in and pressed a warm, but chaste kiss to the corner of Steve’s mouth.

Steve felt his entire face go red and hot. He blinked a few times. The corner of Loki’s lips curled into a smile as he turned to look up at the completed tree.

“It’s rather beautiful, your Christmas,” he said.

Steve beamed.

“Yeah, well,” he said, “we still have the rest of the room to go. Maybe even the rest of the building.”

Loki’s smile immediately spread into a large grin.


End file.
